Venice is a magical city. Mostly the feeling you get there. This was a city I was most excited about. I had been dreaming of visiting here for as long as I can remember.

The Island has no cars, no bikes, no vespas… to get anywhere you walk. Or if you feel like paying an arm and a leg you can take a water taxi. The water bus is a little cheaper, we took that from the mainland to get to the island.

This was our view from the boat. Instantly you feel like your in a dream. “Oh My Gosh!! We’re ACTUALLY in Venice! Somebody pinch me so I know this is real!”

We didn’t get a hotel here, instead we booked a room on Airbnb. Which was really great because we got the real local experience. I highly suggest this site next time you travel! (Click this link for $20 off your first stay) Alex got sick so I wen’t off to try and find a restaurant our host recommended for some dinner. Ended up getting lost and passing the place about 7 times before I realized that was the place! lol!!

Venice is a very safe city. Even being lost on my first night in the middle of the night by myself, I did not feel in danger at all. The city is just tons of narrow streets and canals, it would be a little hard for someone to escape unnoticed if they committed a crime. Especially with how many people there are to witness. 

Our host also let us know about the restaurant trick out here. If you want to save some money, you “do as the locals do” and get all of your food and drinks as “take away”. This doesn’t mean they wrap it all up to go like they do here in the states. This just means you don’t sit. They give you your food on a regular plate, wine in a wine glass and you either eat standing or you find a curb to sit on outside. And if you do this you get your items at about half the cost as you would sitting down. I found a little spot outside on the windowsill. It was an experience for sure.

Unfortunately the food was terrible. And I thought maybe it was just a bad recommendation, but I found out later that there is no GREAT food in Venice. That I had found anyway. We definitely tried. We had some dishes that were Okay. But overall most of it was cold when it should be warm/hot and wasn’t very flavorful. But the wine was good! And I will admit I had a fun time just sitting on the windowsill drinking my wine and watching the other tourists try to find their way around. lol! (I feel your pain!)

The next day Alex was feeling a little better so we did some site seeing. Apparently the thing to do in Venice is get lost and try to stumble upon cool things. So that’s exactly what we did! First we stumbled upon some coffee and pizza to start the day.

The pizza actually wasn’t too bad. At least compared to the other disappointing food we had. After we found a nice spot for some “take away” wine!

And then we just explored the city. I’ll let the pictures do the talking…

The architecture here was something that really impressed me. Like the door above and the walkway below. It was things like this that you just don’t see everyday. Just walking through here you feel the history and Italian culture.

Later in the afternoon we found our way to St. Marks Square. To my disappointment half of St. Marks Basilica was under construction so I didn’t take any pictures of it. Here is some other parts of the square I did get.

Gondolas are such an iconic role in Venetian history and culture. We definitely had to go on a ride while we were here. I will give you a little heads up though…. it’s a tourist attraction, so you will pay a hefty price. We paid 80 Euro for a half hour ride. And we didn’t get serenaded. But it was worth every penny!

This was such a romantic and magical experience. I loved every minute and I was so happy I had someone special to share it with. I think the only thing that could have made it better would have been a glass of wine, or maybe even a bottle of champagne! Ah well maybe next time.

Here is another pic I took of the Gondolas while we were walking around

Oh did I mention that on our Adventure that day we found a casino? Of course leave it to me and Alex to find a casino on our vacation. But this wasn’t just any casino, this just so happens to be the oldest casino in the world!

You have to dress up to enter this casino so we made a plan to come back that night. They don’t allow you to take any pictures inside so all I have is this photo outside. It was a pretty fun night though. We came, we gambled, we lost. LOL! But we lost money at the oldest casino, and in Venice so we weren’t even mad. (Sorry Vegas we had to share our losses elsewhere sometime!)

The next day we only had until noon to site see, before heading to the airport for the next stop. We saw everything that we had wanted to so we found our way to get some more coffee and wine.

It was very interesting to see in Venetian culture as well. Sitting at the wine bar we saw a group of locals walk in, have a glass of wine and then head off to work. We sat and thought about this concept for a bit and realized how great it would be to live that way! Imagine waking up and walking this small island everyday, stop at your favorite wine shop, and head in to work. And these weren’t young people, these were older men who looked like they had been doing this for years. Talk about living the good life!

After our morning wine we still had some time to kill so we walked back to St. Marks Square to hang out for a while.

And that was our trip to Venice! It was short and sweet. We were told that we could see Venice in about 2 days and it was the best advice. We literally saw everything and felt ready to head to the next city by the time we had to leave.

Some fun little bits/tips about Venice:

1. It is VERY touristy. I think most places you go you wonder who is a tourist… Here I wondered who was a local. There are more tourists versus locals here in Venice on any given day. And I think the ratio was something crazy like a 5 to 1 or 5 to 2 ratio.

2. Despite the beauty of Venice, you can’t help but wonder if Tourism is taking over. I often felt like it was Italy’s Disneyland. There were so many souvenir shops all selling the same thing.

3. Wear COMFORTABLE shoes! You will be walking a ton! And unless you want to pay hefty prices, you won’t have many options on places to sit.

If you ever had an interest in visiting Venice I would definitely recommend going sooner rather than later. There is still so much culture and unique beauty here if you are open to noticing it.

Have you been to Venice? What did you love so much about it? Let me know in the comments below!

And that was our trip to Venice, Italy! It was short and sweet. But Those will be some everlasting memories I am so glad to have! Hope you enjoyed this post! If you enjoy reading, make sure to subscribe by putting in your email address and never miss a post! Ciao Grazie!